Original hands-on activities for kids (as well as a compiled archive of ideas from all over the web) with a strong focus on art integration + creative thinking for teachers and homeschoolers

Monday, September 29, 2014

Fossil Hunter

Fossil Hunters - Teachers Pay Teachers($3)Students become paleontologists, searching for fossils (cut out and placed) around the classroom. There are 20 fossils, including: true-form (body), trace, mold and cast. Children walk around with a clipboard and investigate each fossil (labeled A-T). They circle whether it is a body or trace, as well as if it is a mold or cast fossil. Then, they infer what the fossil is!

Fossils included in this pack are:True-Form / Body - skull, claw, skin, femur, whole form (dinosaurs, trilobites, crinoids, ammonites, insects and ferns)Trace - eggs, footprints, nest, feces, burrowsThere are Mold and Cast examples and comparisons.The name of each fossil is posted by each image.

After the students inspect each fossil and record their answers, they tally and graph their fossils because scientists collect data! The categories of the graph are not given to the students; there are only definitions! The students must think about what they learned about each fossil and write the name of the fossil type under each definition. Then, they can tally and fill in their graph!

Next, the students do fossil fractions! Using their tally marks and graph, they write the fraction for each type of fossil (true-form, trace, mold and cast). Then, they reduce each fraction (if necessary) and draw a picture representation of each fraction.video introduction - Fossil Movieby Sheppard Software